The term "propaganda" has long carried a tone of deception, mistrust and half-truths. The historical context of propaganda and the regimes who have used it are likely where the term derived the connotation of falsehood. However, despite the falsehood or truth of any regime, claims of ideological superiority are always a form of propaganda. According to www.dictionary.com, definition of propaganda is, "information, ideas, or rumors deliberately spread widely to help or harm a person, group, movement, institution, nation, etc." meaning that regardless of the validity of any message, it is still propaganda. I will take a stance in this presentation: that the branches of the United States’ military, while changing styles between World War I and the present, have consistently used propaganda as a tool in both the enlistment of soldiers as well as the creation of power structures within the regime of truth produced and perpetuated by the U.S.

Each branch of the U.S. military has created a respective institutional apparatus, through which truth claims and indices. Rose defines an institutional apparatus as "the form of power/knowledge that constitte the institution", that is, the meta-state of the institution itself. The institutional technologies used to create these respective apparati are easily visible in the images I have brought together for this presentation in the war posters and military advertisements, past and present. I intend to dissect these images and show the institutional apparati of the Navy, Army, Air Force and Marines as they are and were through the use of propagandized texts. (Rose 174)